Mahathir aims to retain post for his 'Vision 2020' plan
Mahathir aims to retain post for his 'Vision 2020' plan
By Bill Tarrant
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad once joked at an international business conference in Kuala Lumpur: "If you can't be famous, at least you can be notorious."
He had just been asked if his well-publicized spats with major trading partners like Australia and Britain, and his bashing of western-style democracy, human rights and trade policies had had a chilling effect on investment.
In fact, foreign investment has poured into Malaysia over the past decade -- more than $40 billion worth -- as Mahathir has turned a plantation-oriented economy into an industrialized country.
His disdain for diplomatic niceties stand in stark contrast to the etiquette of deference and reticence among Malays, the majority community in this multi-racial country.
"I'm brash and abrasive but that's because I've noticed when people are nice and polite they never get anywhere," he once said.
Mahathir has boasted at campaign rallies for the general elections on April 24-25 that the World Bank praises Malaysia as a model of development, and he appears to delight in western approval of his policies.
But he bristles at the first hint of criticism.
He took Malaysia to the brink of a trade war with Australia, after Prime Minister Paul Keating called him "recalcitrant" for boycotting the first summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in late 1993.
Soon after that row was patched-up, he launched a seven-month ban on government contracts for British business in retaliation against British press reports alleging that Anglo-Malaysian trade was tainted with corruption.
During the election campaign, Mahathir has promoted his blueprint for turning Malaysia into a fully-developed country over the next 25 years -- a plan he calls "Vision 2020".
Its symbol is the Proton Saga, the national car and Mahathir's brainchild. Launched in 1983, it has become the pride of Malaysia's 20 million people.
The 69-year-old Mahathir, who underwent heart bypass surgery in 1989, has shown no sign of retiring.
Some analysts say he wants to stay at the helm at least until 1998, when Malaysia hosts the Commonwealth Games -- the first Asian nation to do so -- and the APEC summit.
He introduced a "Look East" policy soon after taking office in 1981, trying to emulate Japanese economic development. Mahathir's forceful -- critics say autocratic -- style has sometimes spawned tensions within UMNO. In April 1987, he barely survived a challenge to unseat him at a party convention.
Later that year, Mahathir arrested 100 government critics in a crackdown he said was aimed at quelling racial tension.
In the current election campaign he has threatened to arrest Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang for allegedly stoking racial tensions.
Mahathir took on the country's monarchy in 1993, introducing a constitutional amendment curbing their powers and stripping them of their immunity from criminal prosecution. Malaysia's nine sultans take turns every five years at being a largely ceremonial king.